A Reflection on Blog-Journaling

3/March/2013

     I admit this assignment proved to be more difficult than I had thought, for several reasons. I was counting on my years of writing experience (and journaling experience) to make this a simple and easy, something that wouldn't take very much of my time. However, I was more self-confident than I should have been. It was much more difficult than I would have thought to pick a prompt all on my own. I've never had problems in the past writing journal responses, but in those cases, the prompt was always given to me. I turned out to be extremely picky with my prompts, wanting something more profound and philosophical than "my favorite movies". If anything, what took the most time was picking the prompt. I laughed when I read on one of the sites that Ms. A gave us for prompts: "When you utilize these free creative writing prompts , it is advised that you just start writing whatever comes into your brain. Too much thinking is what got you searching for prompts in the first place, so you might as well get rid of that crap right now :)." Who would have thought too much thinking could prove to be a detrimental thing? It was nice that I was able to share some of my previous pieces of writing, but I could only use that so many times. Then, too, it was hard to fight the tendency to just write about what happened that day, like an actual, normal journal.

     Also, my procrastination got the best of me, I fear, and caused me to have several journals left with little time, so the last few were rather sloppy and I did not get to be as choosy with the prompts as I had before. I shouldn't have written that in the passive tense; it was my fault and my fault alone that I procrastinated. There's that arrogance in my own abilities again. I really should work on that. When I wasn't stressing over how far behind I was, though, I did  have a lot of fun with this. There are a few journals that I hope others see, because I would love to get some other minds' feedback and opinions. I had forgotten a little how much I love to write.

     I never know how to end these things. Before, in class, we had a specific amount of time to write in, and if you were cut off mid-sentence even, it didn't matter. The important part was that you were writing the whole time. Now, though, I have to give these journals an actual structure, beginning, middle, and end. I found myself repeatedly reaching the end of a journal and writing something silly like, "Well, that's what I think" or "Hopefully now I can do this too". So, here I am again, at the end. Am I supposed to tie this up like an essay? Or is it acceptable that I leave it a little less formal? I think I did a little of both in my past journals, so one way or another I hope I'm covered.